Miuccia Prada on ageing

We need a solution, says the 64-year-old

At 64, Miuccia Prada is gracing the cover of T Magazines latest issue. Andrew OHagan, who interviewed the private designer (she doesnt tweet or blog), describes her as a conflicted feminist.

When I started, fashion was the worst place to be if you were a leftist feminist,' Prada told OHagan. It was horrid. I had a prejudice, yes, I always had a problem with it. I suppose I felt guilty not to be doing something more important, more political.

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But, like many women, the subject of ageing is something Prada ponders, perhaps adding weight to her conflicted state. It is much more of a drama for women, the business of aging. No one wants to age, and I really think we should find a solution. Especially because we live so much longer, she said. I think this question of aging will define the society of the future.

When asked if she would ever put older women on her catwalk, Prada responds: Mine is not an artistic world, it is a commercial world. I cannot change the rules Lets say Im not brave enough. I dont have the courage.

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OHagan, however, argues that Prada does have courage, since she often asks the fashion world to reconsider what is beautiful.

Ugly is attractive, ugly is exciting. Maybe because it is newer, she said. The investigation of ugliness is, to me, more interesting than the bourgeois idea of beauty. And why? Because ugly is human. It touches the bad and the dirty side of people. You know, this might have been a scandal in fashion but in other fields of art it is common: in painting and in movies, it was so common to see ugliness. But, yes, it was not used in fashion and I was very much criticised for inventing the trashy and the ugly.

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